Friday, 5 November 2010

Just finished: Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo

* spoilers, mmmkay? *

And so this series ends on an uplifting note after problems with the law meant that Haruko-sensei was unable to complete the course along with her students. But, luckily, she comes back for the next term and so do her class. So, despite nobody getting what they wanted at the start of the series, it all ends happily.

I'm still not sure about this show, though. It never seemed to know what it was about: the Japanese language, being foreign in Japan, or a straight comedy. The storylines were hard to believe, and so was some of the acting, but despite that I kept coming back. It must've had something to recommend it... but I can't quite put my finger on it just now...

One thing I will say: while I was watching this, I started thinking that there's a gap in the market for a sort of Japanese QI, which talks about all the quirks of Japanese culture in an intelligent and funny way. Sometimes Nihonjin no... is informative but then a few seconds later it tries too hard to be funny. Meanwhile Japanology is interesting, but too serious. If there was something in the middle, I'd be very happy.